Meaning

An act of entrapping or tricking; an entrapment; also, a thing which entraps or tricks; a snare or trap; a stratagem or trick..

Definitions by Sense

1. An act of entrapping or tricking; an entrapment; also, a thing which entraps or tricks; a snare or trap; a stratagem or trick.
2. (probably originally thieves' cant, archaic or obsolete) A person (or occasionally an animal) that traps or tricks another into doing something that benefits them but harms the victim; a fraudster, a swindler, a trickster.
3. To catch or entrap (a person or animal) in a snare or trap; to ensnare, to trap.
4. (figurative) To trap or trick (someone), especially by using some stratagem, into doing something that benefits the perpetrator but harms the victim; to defraud, to ensnare, to entrap, to swindle.
5. Alternative spelling of trepan (“surgical instrument used to remove a small section of bone, usually from the skull; tool used to bore through rock, etc.”).
6. Alternative spelling of trepan (“to cut through bone, usually the skull, using a trepan (etymology 2, noun sense); to create a large hole by making a narrow groove outlining the shape of the hole and then removing the plug of material”)

Example Sentences

As for all other Pretences, they are nothing but Death and Damnation, dreſſed up in Fair VVords and Falſe Shevvs; nothing but Ginns, and Snares, and Trepans for Souls; Contrived by the Devil, and Managed by ſuch as the Devil ſets on VVork.

[A] Man ſhould fix and fore-arm his Mind vvith this ſettled Perſvvaſion, that, during that Commotion of his Blood and Spirits, in vvhich Paſſion properly conſiſts, vvhatſoever is offered to the Imagination in favour of it, tends only to deceive his Reaſon. It is indeed a real Trapan upon it; feeding it vvith Colours, and Appearances, inſtead of Arguments; […]

But novv has this little Embryo Strength enough to thruſt itſelf into the VVorld? To hold up its Head, and to maintain its Courſe to a perfect Maturity, againſt all the Aſſaults and Batteries of Intemperance; all the Snares and Trapans that Common Life lays in its VVay to extinguiſh and ſuppreſs it?

Julian was hastily revolving whether they ought, in prudence, to accept this man's invitation, aware, by experience, how many trepans, as they were then termed, were used betwixt two contending factions, […]

[O]ld associates who had once thought him [Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston] a man of dauntless courage and spotless honour, […] now pronounced that he was at best a meanspirited coward, and hinted their suspicions that he had been from the beginning a spy and a trepan.

Each of 'em has a ſev'ral Gin, / To catch Intelligences in. / Some by the Noſe vvith fumes trapan 'em, / As Dunſtan did the Devil's Grannum.

Word Forms

• trapans
• trepan
• trapanning
• trapanned

Synonyms for trapan

Related Words

When Should You Use Trapan?

Use trapan when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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